Anyone using Twitter on iOS can head to the survey link, where they'll be asked a number of short questions on their preferred platform, language, and country of residence. Invitations to the beta test will then be sent out over the coming weeks.

Open your eyes and see

So what can a simple redesign do to tackle the problem of how we communicate online? For one, the new design hides away Like and Retweet numbers until you click for them, in an attempt to focus more on what's being said, rather than just how far it's reached.

Visually the new design is also more casual, with rounded speech boxes of the kind in your text messages, and a simple blue/gray color-coding to identify followers and the original poster of the message.

Replies are also indented to make it clearer what message is responding to what - much like Reddit - for more visual clarity.

The public launch of the redesign is still "months away" according to the company: whether it will help bring conversation back to the fore, and help mitigate trolling and abuse, remains to be seen.